As the crumbling political union between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto enters the homestretch characterized with drama and washing dirty linen in public, the supporters and critics of the duo have had to ask themselves oftenly; what really went wrong between Uhuru and Ruto and who is to blame for it?
It is the lack of a satisfactory answer to this question that has led to emergence of different theories as supporters aligned to either leader concocte all manner of things to befit their biased narratives.
The narratives coming from either camps not withstanding, if one was to critically look at the merits and the substance of what might have occasioned the bitter fallout and pass a fair verdict: Who between the two would bear the task of shouldering the bigger blame, considering that neither of them is to be found blameless? Hard question indeed!
But, allow me to analogically focus on each of the two comrades-turn-foes at a time, and leave you to be the judge; that is if you can first shelve the prejudices which you may have against either.
To do this, I will borrow some wisdom from modern and traditional literary works to keep my sentimental thoughts from infiltrating the story.
Ruto - The Tortoise Who Danced Himself Lame Before the Feast?
When you focus on the process, the desired goal takes care of itself with fluid ease. But when you focus on the goal, you immediately begin to fight yourself and experience boredom, restlessness, frustration, and impatience with the process, Thomas Sterner says in his book 'The Practicing Mind; Developing Focus and Discipline in Your Life'.
When you focus your mind on the present moment, on the process of what you are doing right now, you are always where you want to be and where you should be. All your energy goes into what you are doing. However, when you focus your mind on where you want to end up, you are never where you are, and you exhaust your energy with unrelated thoughts instead of putting it into what you are doing, Stanner adds.
So, without adding anything, I ask: Could Ruto's focus on the goal rather than the process, and the future rather than the present, have been where the rain began to beat him as regards to their bromance with Uhuru?
Uhuru - The Lion That Bred Contempt by Familiarity?
A story is told of a young Fox, who had never before seen a Lion but happened to meet one in the forest. A single look was enough to send the Fox off at top speed to the nearest hiding place.
The second time the Fox saw the Lion he stopped behind a tree to look at him a moment before slinking away. But the third time, the Fox went boldly up to the Lion and, without turning a hair, said, "Hello, there, old top."
From this fable whose moral lesson is; familiarity breeds contempt, we observe the extremes in which we may fall as regards to acceptable behaviour towards our superiors and vice-versa.
In many occasions, we are bound to be fearful while navigating into uncharted waters without any reasonable grounds. But as we get used to the waters, we become indifferent and even unconcerned, unlike before, when we could almost sink under a load of fear.
In such occasions, if not careful, we may force the balance too much, and make it evolve to an unbecoming freedom and an offensive familiarity.
Without seeking to paraphrase the fable any further, taking Uhuru to be the Lion and Ruto the Fox; could Uhuru be the one who cultivated the 'offensive familiarity' which brought Ruto so close to thinking that they were equals or co-presidents as critics put it?
